ONGC forays into fertiliser sector with Chambal Fertiliser

India's largest oil and gas exploration firm, Oil and Natural Gas Corp (ONGC), on Wednesday announced a foray into the fertiliser sector and setting up a gas-based urea plant in Tripura with Chambal Fertiliser and Chemicals Ltd (CFCL).

A commercial scale urea fertiliser plant with a capacity of 1.3 million tonnes per annum (mtpa) would utilise 2.4 million standard cubic metres of gas per day (MMSCMD) and entail an investment of Rs 5,000 crore.

"The company took the first step into the fertiliser domain by inking a memorandum ofunderstanding (MoU) with CFCL and the Government of Tripura for setting up a urea fertilizer project in the state," ONGC said in a statement.

The identification of CFCL as a strategic partner for the venture was through a transparent selection process on the basis of their long-standing experience and expertise in the fertiliser sector, the statement added.

ONGC has discovered significant gas reserves in Khubal under NELP acreage AA-ONN-2001/1, located in the logistically challenging north-eastern part of Tripura, which otherwise would be stranded due to poor marketing and evacuation avenues.